STAMFORD — The city is flirting with outsourcing jobs at its only nursing home, and silent on whether it plans to sell it outright. The men and women who live there say they want it to stay the way it is.

By the city’s projections, Smith House Nursing and Rehabilitation is operating at a $5.7 million deficit, which is covered by the taxpayers. And staff members have been working without a contract for at least three years, depending on which unions represent them.

While the residents have not always approved of the staff — and some still do not — many say that the nurses and aides who work at the home are top-notch, and do not want a change.

“I’ve been here 20 years and six months. It must be doing something right, or I wouldn’t stay,” said resident Cecily Christian. “If they change the staff, I probably might even leave.”

For Denise Festa, whose father, John D’Agostino, lives at Smith House in a wing devoted to patients with forms of dementia, consistency has been crucial.

“Because of much prodding, much advocacy for these patients, they have finally stabilized some of the nursing staff,” Festa told The Advocate. “A dementia patient, that’s really how they go on day-to-day.”

And as things stand now, said Festa, the staff has distinguished itself.

“They are above and beyond excellent. They treat every patient with reverence, respect, care — it’s just unbelievable, the level of care,” said Festa. “They should all be commended because they are amazing.”

June Stefanek, who has lived at Smith House for six years, said that the home, which sits on a wooded lot near the former Scofieldtown Landfill, has become a community unto itself.

“This is a good place — we live here, and we need this place,” said Stefanek. “It’s like a town here.”

Robert Mislow, the center’s executive director, could not say for certain what was going to happen with staffing, but tried to assure the residents that they would continue to receive the care to which they had grown accustomed.

“As far as what will be decided in the future, I really can’t say,” said Mislow. “I will continue to take care of the patients, the residents and my staff … as best as we possibly can under those parameters.”

Citing “ongoing negotiations,” Mayor David Martin’s office opted not predict if or how privatization would affect the staff or the patient mix at Smith House, or whether the city was considering selling the nursing home altogether.

The uncertainty has begun to gnaw at some of the residents.

“They’re just looking for some sort of comfort,” said Festa. “Whatever degree can be given.”